John glanced at Logan, seeking guidance, but Logan’s tongue had been stolen by Jenny’s ease.
“Besides,” she continued, drawing John’s attention back to her, “While you’re here, I’d like to show you some of the results from the tests I’ve been running on the honeysuckle.”
John perked up, his mind shifting gears. “Find anything of note?”
“Potentially,” she hedged. “I’ll be happy to show you later, but first I’ve got to…” She waved vaguely back to the bedroom, and Logan saw the brittle shield of control quiver a little, before she forced it still. “Let’s talk about the results when I’m wearing real clothes.”
“O-okay,” John stuttered. “That would be…great.”
She nodded to the coffeepot, her gaze on Logan like a flickering flame. “Is there enough in there for me?”
“Plenty.”
She nodded and turned. “I’ll be back in twenty minutes.” Then she was gone.
John let out a slow, long whistle the moment he heard the bedroom door close. “Did that just happen?”
Logan exhaled. He wasn’t sure what the hell just happened, either.
“I walk in her to find out you’re involved with Dr. Jenny Vance, tenured professor, working wonder, and lo and behold out of the bedroom strides a Titian love-goddess.”
“Shut up, John.” Logan grabbed a cup.
“Do you have any idea what a lucky bastard you are?”
“Get the milk and put it on the table.” He poured the coffee. “I’ll fetch the sugar for Jenny.”
“‘Jenny’?” John whooped a laugh and pulled the fridge open. “And here I thought you two were heading for disaster. You’ve been such a bear since you got back from South America, and Dr. Vance can be intimidating--well, clearly I don’t know the woman very well—”
“John,” Logan thrust the cup at him with a hard eye. “Tell me about Judy.”
“Judy’s great, but the house doesn’t go up in flames when she looks at me.”
Don’t think about that look. “And what’s this about a German baby nurse?”
“You’re still a bear,” John continued, grinning over his cup. “But I’m glad you two hit it off so quickly.”
He shut his eyes. “You’re worse than my mother.”
“I like your mom. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Go home, John,” Logan said. “Go home to Judy. Postpartum depression might set in soon. I’ll make your excuses to Jen—your other houseguest.”
“No way. I’ve got an invitation. It would be plain inhospitable for me to drive away now. So you’d better ‘fess up, Logan, ‘cuz I’m not leaving until I hear the whole story.”
Logan took a sip of his own black coffee and met his friend’s eyes level and hard. “That will take all of five minutes.”
John’s exuberance dimmed. “It’s a casual thing?”
He shook his head ‘no’ before he had a moment to think otherwise, then filled his mouth with more hot coffee to stop himself from saying anything else so freakin’ reckless.
“It doesn’t look casual.” John scraped his cup on the table. “Funny thing, I never would have put you two together, but…yeah, I can see how that works.”
Logan sighed and resigned himself to the inevitable discussion. He and John had known each other since they were children, attended the same schools for fifteen years, played on the same football team, struggled in the same calculus classes. In just a way as this, John had dragged out of Logan the whole sordid tale of what had happened in South America—a story Logan had only told Garrick and Dylan. Now Logan leaned against the counter gripping his coffee cup trying to form his thoughts into words. He could hear the vague sound of the water running in the master bathroom. It hurt to think when it was his body doing all the talking, imagining joining Jenny in that small shower. But here sat John, pinning him with that all-knowing look in his eye, his feet planted firmly on the kitchen floor, waiting for details.
He didn’t have details. They didn’t exist, not in any language he knew, and he knew three. His feelings for Jenny were visceral. He wanted. More than her body, but he wasn’t ready to go down that path. Everything was too raw, too fresh, and too tender to expose to the bright open air.
“By God,” John murmured as he sank back into the chair. “I never thought it would happen.”
“What?”
“You, falling like a load of bricks.”
“Stop.” He shook his head. “It isn’t the right time, John.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not ready for this,” Logan said, waving his coffee cup in vague circles. “And I suspect she isn’t, either.”
“Cupid doesn’t give a damn about timing.”
Logan nearly spit out a mouthful. “Cupid?”
“Don’t laugh.” John rumbled up from the chair and tossed in the sink the dregs of his coffee, which Logan hadn’t even witnessed him drinking. “I remember the first time I saw Judy. The shot went clean through my heart.” He yanked open the refrigerator door and sidled a glance at Logan. “I felt exactly how you look right now. Like the arrow was made of lead and weighed about fifty pounds.”
Again, Logan couldn’t muster a denial. But something had seized him over the last few days. Something fierce and needy and uninvited, something he hadn’t expected.
“The professor was right, you do have burgers in here.” John took the meat out and tossed it on the counter. “Got propane for that grill? I’m starved.”
Logan glanced at the clock over the sink. “John, it’s eleven-thirty in the morning.”
“Hey, you single studs might be able to sleep until noon, but I was up feeding Lily at five-thirty. It’s way past lunchtime for me. You and your ladylove will just have to suffer burgers for breakfast. Besides,” he said, a twinkle in his eye, “what a man needs after a night like yours is a hunk of red meat.”
“Point made.” Logan clanked his cup in the sink. “But I’m the one who’s making the burgers.”
“You burn them. That’s no way to treat fine ground beef.”
“Shut up and get the Worcestershire sauce.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jenny descended the stairs to the cool mustiness of the lab, flipping open
